What an exceptional day.
We all started off the day not really knowing what would happen. We had our target list in our back pockets – and marched off to the opening ceremonies of Voices of the Future. Once there, we were separated into our four assigned teams (groups we stick together with during the summit – each team has a number of delegates from each economy).
At the beginning of the day, we heard from Fukimo Hayashi, Mayor of Yokohama; Makiko Kikuta Parliamentary Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs; Noel Gould, Founding Member APEC Voices and Mr. Hitoshi Kawaguchi, Senior Vice President, Nisson Motor Co Ltd. After the first hour of presentations were finished and the formal “tea reception” was to begin – all four of our delegates were at the front of the auditorium in anticipation of meeting some of the distinguished guests. Language barriers have been a challenge, but easily overcome with a sincere smile accompanied by some well-versed Japanese, “Hello, my name is Gabrielle.”
As a team, we were able to meet Senior Vice Presidents and managers from Nissan and Renault. Not to mention the former Head of Asian operations for IBM. One of my favourite conversations we engaged in was with Ambassador Muhamad Noor, who is the Executive Director of APEC. When he first arrived, I recognized him from the profile book (provided by VOF) and immediately engaged in a conversation. This worked out quite well, as Ambassador Noor was on a panel in the afternoon – which meant if we had waited it would have been much harder to talk to him after his speaking engagement. We met him and his wife, who are from Malaysia. We swapped stories of our experiences with Kuala Lumpur (as JTC just had a mission there). Without a doubt, our initiative and forthright conversations resonated very well with him – another contact for the Golden Rolodex.
During the afternoon, VOF Participants were privy to view the world’s first mass market zero emission car – the Nissan Leaf. Hideaki Watanabe, the Corporate Vice President for Nissan’s Global Zero Emission Vehicle Business Unit, unveiled the Leaf in a very informative and innovative presentation.
As the Nissan Global Headquarters are located in Yokohama (where all our meetings today were held) – we were even able to take one out for a test drive!
Although the day was jam-packed with solidifying relationships and gathering information, the team did not rest come the “free” time in the evening. Philip had already contacted the Japanese team who attended the G8/G20 this past summer. The rest of the APEC team and I went out to meet with them, where we were able to take in some local cuisine and culture. The Japanese team was able to teach us some great Japanese phrases and without a doubt we will stay in contact with them in the future.
Stay tuned as more updates are posted
